Josh Neels – Collector Stories – By Josh Yawn

It was the fall of 2014. I had just purchased my first arcade machine on a whim. I had no idea what I was doing. I always wanted to own one (that one became forty) and was excited to get working on getting it running.

I asked around in the mid-sized Texas city I’m from if anyone knew someone who worked on arcade machines that I could pick the brain of. A local video game shop owner turned me on to a fellow by the name of Josh Neels. We hit it off instantly. I learned from Josh, I went on countless warehouse raids and barn picks with Josh, and Josh became one of my best friends. The two Joshes went on many adventures until life brought him back to his home state of Illinois. Today, Josh is a mainstay name in the arcade collector community and is one of the smartest problem solvers I’ve ever met in my life. Far greater than his skills are his qualities in helping and teaching others learn what he knows. It’s an absolute pleasure and honor to be able to interview him as the first subject of this series.

JY: For the record, tell everyone who you are, where you’re from and how long you’ve been collecting.

JY: What got you into collecting video games?

JN: Well, I already had owned my all of my games from my childhood, but there were a lot of video games I was unable to obtain when I was still a kid so I decided to start buying the games I never had a chance to play. The addiction with buying and collecting games only grew from there.

JY: Let’s talk about your collection, tell us what it consists of.

JN: My collection primarily consists of games for consoles from the NES to current day consoles. I own games for NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Sega Game Gear, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, Big Box PC games, as well as arcade games. Overall I have a little over 1,200 games for consoles & PC. To accommodate those games, I also own 17 arcade machines, 2 pinball machines, and an awesome coin operated dart board.